Hello all!
I am so excited for the adventure that awaits this website, blog, and podcast. My name is Meredith Busch, and Woman's Place podcast is my brainchild, and honestly, probably the dream and aspiration of many before me.
I wanted to begin by introducing myself so we're not strangers. We're in this together, trying to find our place in the world, and much of my life experience will color my take on the history we're going to explore, as will yours.
I am a Southern California native, having lived most of my life in Orange County. I had close to what you might think of as a typical Orange County experience. My dad owned his own business, my mom stayed home to raise my brother and me full-time (before she taught at my high school). I attended Christian school from preschool to 12th grade. I did softball, volleyball, soccer, tennis, dance, choir, figure skating, gymnastics, and church. I competed in spelling bees, speech meet, and math olympics. I studied abroad in high school and college, graduated from high school as Valedictorian, and graduated with honors from UC Irvine in International and Russian Studies.
Over the years, I've wanted to be a zookeeper, an astronaut (a shuttle commander, specifically), a spy, a lawyer, a writer, a diplomat, a politician, and anything that would make money and a difference. Needless to say, ambition has never been my weakness. However, in my 30s, looking back, I'd probably say that follow-through is a weakness of mine.
After graduation, I worked several jobs from retail management to tech recruiting and finally landed at the company I currently work for. While working at my current company, I got the opportunity to get my master of liberal arts, and they paid for it. Everything I studied led me to the question of women's rights. I studied the rise and fall of empires, the Hebrew Bible, medieval England, religions of the emerging world, the coming-of-age novel, WWI, and British Victorian women. In each of these classes, I learned about the impact of women and the rights/privileges afforded them. Ultimately, I wrote my thesis on the iconic Anne of Green Gables, one of my favorite stories, discussing how Anne Shirley reached beyond the typical archetype for her time to achieve things beyond the norm.
In my extensive research, I found that many women who aren't academics have a limited understanding of the evolution of woman's place in the world, and the rights we have fought for and/or earned. It is this journey of our gender that I want to share. It isn't taught properly in schools, and it's everchanging. Let's learn about how we got here, and what our place is in the world.
By the end of January, I'll be posting an introduction and the first episode. Tune in for some teasers between now and then...